Audi Headlights Seeing Around Corners Banned by U.S. Rule

An Audi A8 automobile sits in the final inspection area at the company's factory in Neckarsulm, Germany. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Audi AG customers in Europe will be
able for another $3,000 to buy A8 sedans with headlights that
see around corners and illuminate more space without blinding
oncoming motorists.

“Extremely trick,” Car and Driver magazine called the
lights after Audi showcased them at the Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas.

A demonstration, though, is the only U.S. setting in which
Audi can show off the lights, because a 45-year-old regulation
prohibits them in the second-largest auto market after China.

“The lighting technology changed dramatically in the last
10 to 15 years,” Stephan Berlitz, Audi’s head of lighting
innovations, said in an interview. “It’s difficult to do all
these innovative things in this regulation from 1968.”

Volkswagen AG’s luxury unit is among automakers and
lighting manufacturers pushing to change the rule requiring
headlights to switch between low- and high-beam settings, a
distinction the self-adjusting Audi lights eliminate. Industry
representatives are preparing to meet with U.S. regulators as a
step toward changing the standard.

The headlight rule, which has been updated over the years,
is one of the oldest in U.S. auto safety, predating the 1970
creation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Headlight technology has advanced since then from sealed
beams to halogen to xenon and now to light-emitting diodes, or
LEDs. While more expensive than older forms of lighting, LED
lighting lasts longer, generates less heat and uses less power.

Matrix Beam

While NHTSA officials said they’re receptive to the new
technology, the agency isn’t convinced LED lighting improves
safety. Rear-end collisions increased in most models that
switched to LED brake lighting from incandescent lamps, the
agency said in a report last month.

Audi, based in Ingolstadt, Germany, developed its lights
and worked with suppliers including Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. The
lights will debut as an option on the A8, which starts at
$72,000 and ranges up to $134,500, Audi of America President
Scott Keogh said at the Washington Auto Show in January.

Audi expects the lights to be available in non-U.S. markets
next year, said Brad Stertz, a U.S.-based spokesman.

The so-called matrix-beam headlights are the first to use
multiple LEDs to allow drivers to essentially have high beams on
at all times.

Cameras and sensors direct the LEDs to turn off or dim in
response to what’s ahead of them, creating a changing series of
lights and shadows to improve visibility.

3,000 Euros

“Lighting technology has come from having a lighting
component like a headlamp that you install in the car to a
system that is a combination of light sources sometimes combined
with camera-sensors and data processing,” said Bart Terburg,
automotive regulations manager for Osram GmbH’s North American
unit Osram Sylvania. Osram is the lighting unit of Siemens AG.

Terburg is chairman of the lighting systems group for SAE
International, a standards-setting group of automotive
engineers.

The lights would enhance safety as well as profits, with
Audi getting 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,605 to $3,908) selling its
packages, Berlitz said. U.S. approval could also create
opportunities for suppliers including Valeo SA, Koito
Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Stanley Electric Co. Ltd.

Cars sold in the U.S. increasingly include advanced
headlights, according to auto researcher Edmunds.com, based in
Santa Monica, California. For the 2013 model year, 165 models
have standard xenon high-intensity discharge lights or LEDs,
according to data compiled by Edmunds. Another 95 come with them
as options, out of 332 models sold in the U.S. this year.

Technology Package

Audi and other automakers including General Motors Co. and
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG have a lot at stake because
customers are willing to pay for lighting design and style, said
Jeremy Anwyl, vice chairman of Edmunds.

“People with extra disposable income who value those
aesthetics are the ones buying that standalone option,” Anwyl
said in an e-mail. “But, most people who have upgraded lighting
get it as part of a technology package. Automakers bundle
options that people want with new features that people don’t
know they want.”

Lighting options can add hundreds or thousands of dollars
to the price of a vehicle. Chrysler Group LLC’s Dodge Dart has a
light option for $395 while Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc’s
Range Rover comes with a $31,000 “autobiography package” that
includes fancier lights.

Lighting ‘Jewelry’

Consumers “like the way they look,” Anwyl said of new
headlights. “They’re considered jewelry, so if you can create a
sexier design they can help with sales. Take those headlights
from the 60s and put them on cars today. They’d look pretty
funny.”

Another attraction is that LED lighting may improve fuel
economy, he said. “Just a sliver, but every sliver counts,” he
said.

Light-emitting diodes have been around for decades. For
years, they had little commercial use beyond the red lights for
alarm clocks and calculators. Researchers opened up more
applications by learning how to coat blue diodes with phosphor
to make the light white.

More than 1 million vehicles have been equipped with LED
brake lights since GM’s Cadillac DeVille made the switch for the
2000 model year.

NHTSA officials plan to meet with SAE representatives, who
include suppliers, automakers and academics, about the headlight
standard in the next few months.

‘Good One’

“The agency has been following very closely the recent
developments in advanced lighting and believes these new
lighting approaches may provide drivers with additional
visibility,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said in an e-mailed statement.

Companies come to NHTSA “all the time” with requests to
change safety standards, said Joan Claybrook, the first NHTSA
administrator and president emeritus of Public Citizen, a
Washington-based advocacy group.

“The idea they have is a good one, and I realize they’d
make a lot of money from it,” she said of the lighting request.

The request may not be acted upon quickly by regulators as
automatic budget cuts take effect across the U.S. government,
Claybrook said in an interview.

“For a lighting system that dims, I’m not sure that’s
going to be No. 1 on their list,” she said.

Brake-Light Test

NHTSA found mixed results in analyzing LED brake-light
performance in 15 makes and models that switched from
incandescent rear lamps.

The LED lights reduced rear-end crashes in some models,
particularly Honda Motor Co.’s Accord, while collisions
increased in most other models, according to the report it
published two weeks ago.

While SAE plans initially to present information to NHTSA
without seeking changes, Osram’s Terburg said, Audi is looking
for the standard to be changed.

“The U.S. regulation knows only high-beam and low-beam and
nothing in between,” Berlitz said. “The newer technologies
allow to have something in between.”